A Beach-Side Wedding
by nixerist
Summary: #3 of the Life as We Know It series. It's Annabeth's big day. She has waited for this for a long time, but will she make it to the aisle?


Today is not a normal day. Today is _the _day. My wedding day. I personally am excited for it, but at the same time relieved to get it over with. All those wedding shows on T.V. make you think that planning a wedding is either horrible, or they really exaggerate everything. Well it is definitely not the latter. Percy and I had agreed we just wanted to have a small wedding with our closest friends, parents, and half siblings. Now of course, that wouldn't be too difficult for most people, but when you are marrying a person who your mother absolutely hates and wants to incinerate both him and his father, who also will be attending, then, yes, it will be painful. Telling Athena in itself had been hard enough. She had tried to tell me it was unwise and that he would be just like his father. Once I convinced her that that was not true, then I had to figure out how to get her to go to the actual wedding. In other words, it took a lot of convincing.

So once we had all the guests figured out, then we had to decide the location. We thought that a beach service would be perfect, since we used to just sit and talk on the beach. This of course made Poseidon happy, but then Athena thought we were only trying to please him. Another set of issues to deal with.

So after six months of planning, shopping, and stress, here I am with Piper, Hazel, and Thalia prepping me. I really am not much of a make-up girl, but Piper convinced me to let her deal with how I'd look. Charmspeak: something I had learned to deal with since I could never beat it. After a painful hour of hair and makeup, they actually allowed me to step into my dress. I never thought that would actually happen.

Soon enough, I was all ready to go walk down to the beach and down the aisle. My hair, makeup, and jewelry were done. My dress was perfect. Everything seemed perfect. I was standing in-front of a mirror looking at myself with my friends surrounding me. They were all looking at me expectantly, but I just started at my reflection. And then I did something that surprised everyone: I started crying. Where it came from, I don't even know, but I seemed to terrify my friends.

"Annabeth calm down! What's wrong? You look so pretty, you're marrying the most perfect man for you, and everything is going as planned." Thalia cooed softly.

Piper's reaction was quite different.

"Oh, Annabeth! Why are you crying? All your makeup was perfect! Now I only have 10 minutes to fix your mascara! Hazel, can you grab something to clean her face and I'll grab the mascara! Hurry!" This, of course, did not quite help, and the tears came quicker. I know Piper wasn't trying to make me feel worse, but it was just the realization I messed something up. Thalia was hugging me muttering soft words, trying to help. She still was looking for an explanation.

"I didn't think this would ever happen." I start explaining to her, "I was supposed to have died, like a normal demigod. I didn't think I would get this far."

"Annie, don't worry about that. Live in the moment and enjoy the ride. Everything is going to be alright."

And with that, I was fine. The tears stopped and Piper started fixing my makeup. A few moments later, I was at the beginning of the white rose petal aisle with my father, staring at the man I loved.

It took me a moment to get my legs to move, but I looked down the aisle and saw something that surprised me. My mother was sitting next to Poseidon, her enemy. I realized that if Poseidon and Athena can sit together for me, I have the strength to walk down an aisle. And before I knew, I was next to Percy.

Most of the ceremony went by really fast and I was too distracted to notice the details. But I certainly caught the vows.

"Annabeth, I know you probably have some wonderful speech written out, with perfect grammar and all, but I figured that for me, it doesn't matter. All that really matters is that I love you. I would go to Tartarus and back for you. I promise to be with you every step of this journey. And as long as we're together, I'm happy, Wise Girl."

Hearing him say that, I just wanted to melt. He was right, when I wrote up my vows I made sure that everything was grammatically correct. And though his were not necessarily textbook perfect, they were perfect to me.

"Seaweed Brain, you most definitely aren't always the sharpest knife in the draw, but thats what make you you. I love you and you quirky, kiddish ways and I can't think of any better way to spend my life than with you. We can kick some monster butt as a team. I love you and hope I never have to be away from you again."

We repeated the words that the priest said and gave our rings to each other. And finally, the priest told Seaweed Brain he could kiss me. He gave me that little grin that he did so often and I stared into his eyes. When our lips reached, I knew that Thalia had been right. Everything would be alright if I could be with my Percy. And if Aphrodite tried to break us apart, she was going to have to deal with a very angry me.

After the ceremony, we all went to a reception, also on the beach. All of our siblings were congratulating us. It was really great to see everyone. The others from the Great Prophecy were chatting amongst themselves. And then out of seemingly nowhere, Athena and Poseidon appeared. The others left to give us a moment.

My mother was the first to speak, "Annabeth, you know that I'm not a fan of Poseidon, but I am very glad that you two are happy. And that you have made the wisest choices."

"Yes yes, congratulations kids. And I love the location. This beach has a great view of the sea." Poseidon said, staying away from the sophisticated response to a wedding.

'Thanks Lady Athena, Dad. It really means a lot." Percy said. After a few more minutes of conversing, we went and sat down for a delicious dinner. Everything was perfect. I was enjoying relaxing but apparently Seaweed Brain had a different idea.

"Hey Annabeth."

"Yea Perce?"

"Let's go boogie!" He exclaimed as he pulled me to the dance floor. Everyone looked up at us. Percy pulled me close as some slow music played. We danced around, him twirling me once in a while. When the music stopped, I just looked at him. His sea green eyes. His floppy hair. Him. And I knew that no matter what happened, as long as I had him, I would be happy.


End file.
